They're my all-time favourite. If I was stranded on a desert island and I could only have one kind of polish, I would pick pale pink. Millenial pink nails are the perfect accessory to any outfit and are both trendy and completely classic at the same time. A few years ago I did a comparison on Essie pale pink polishes and it's become one of my most read posts, so I know a lot of other people love pale pink nails too! Since Essie has recently released a bunch of pale pink Gel Couture polishes, I was super curious to see how they all compared. Side by side, you should be able to see the different undertones and opacity of the polishes and hopefully figure out which pale pink Gel Couture is the perfect one for you!

Fairy Tailor

This is the oldest pale pink GC. It was released in the summer of 2016 as part of the original 42 Gel Couture releases. It was one of the very first ones I bought because I NEEDED a pale pink GC. I honestly forgot how pretty this one is! I remembered it being more sheer and while YES it's sheer, especially on the first coat, you can get it pretty opaque in 3 coats. You can still kind of see your nail line but it's really squishy and delicate and clean looking. It reminds me a lot of Ballet Slippers. It's a pale pink but with more creamy nude tones to it. Because of the beautiful wide GC brush, you don't get any streaks which is amazing for a color like this.

Lace Me Up

This was my fave polish of 2017! It's a warm toned, opaque pale pink. Lace Me Up came out at the beginning of 2017 in the Ballet Nudes Collection (such a good collection!). Lace Me Up and Fairy Tailor actually look like the same color in the bottle but apply completely differently. Lace Me Up goes on completely opaque and doesn't have that squishy, crelly formula at all. It's almost opaque in 2 coats but I still had some faint streaks so I went with 3 coats and it's smooth and perfect. Super gorgeous formula for a pale pink. Because of the GC brush, this one applies like a dream as well. I'm going to sound like a broken record, so I'll just say now that all of these pale pink polishes apply amazingly well because of that incredible GC brush.

Wearing Hue?

This is my first time trying this polish out and I'm in love! This polish came out in the summer of 2017 with the Gala Bolds Collection but only in the U.S. It didn't come out in Canada and after seeing a bunch of swatches of it on Instagram, I wanted it! My husband tried to get it for me when he flew down to Chicago, but ended up accidentally buying me Fairy Tailor instead. Before Christmas, I went on head2toebeauty.com and was ordering some of the Holiday Gel Couture salon only releases when I realized I could also finally get my hands on Wearing Hue. Of course it jumped in my cart. It's a very white toned pale pink with very subtle golden shimmer when you look up close. It's so very close to being opaque in 2 coats but I did 3 for complete coverage. Just like the others, it self-levels so nicely and applies like a dream because of the brush.

Matter of Fiction

This polish just came out a month or so ago in the Enchanted Collection. I swatched this one and immediately fell in love. Probably my favourite of the whole collection. It's such a beautiful cool toned pale pink. This has the same formula as the others and was opaque in 3 coats.

Radiant Cut

This was my first time trying this one too. I ordered it before Christmas from the salon exclusive GC Holiday Collection. I'm such a sucker for pale pinks! This was more of a creamy crelly formula rather than a super opaque pale pink like Lace Me Up, Wearing Hue and Matter of Fiction. It's more opaque than Fairy Tailor though and I couldn't see my nail line at 3 coats, but it still had that beautiful squishiness that jellies and crellies have.

Blush-Worthy

This polish came out in the 2017 Wedding Collection. It's also kind of a creamy crelly formula, with much more of a nude-pink tone. It's also full of golden shards. This is 3 coats and you can still see a bit of my nail line. This is my least favourite out of all 7 of these shades. I find the more white toned pale pinks more flattering on me, but I honestly think this one would look AH-mazing on a deeper skin tone.

Inside Scoop

Another new polish for me! It's from the Gala Bolds Collection released summer 2017. It was another polish released only in the U.S. but when I saw it was finally available in Canada I had to jump on it! It's another sheer crelly but becomes pretty opaque in 3 coats. You can still see a bit of my nail line but it isn't streaky at all. I'm loving the sweet bubble gum pinkness of this one.

Inside Scoop vs. Blush-Worthy vs. Radiant Cut vs. Matter of Fiction

This comparison helps you see that Inside Scoop has a cool bubble gum pink tone to it, while Blush-Worthy is more of a peach nude pink. Radiant Cut and Matter of Fiction are looking identical here, but you'll see the slight difference between them in the next pic.

Wearing Hue? vs. Lace Me Up vs. Radiant Cut vs. Matter of Fiction

The differences are suble, but Matter of Fiction is slightly brighter/whiter and more opaque while Radiant Cut has more of a soft squishy pink tone. But they really look identical when I pull my hand away from my face. Wearing Hue is the most white toned of the bunch and also has that fine warm shimmer. The one that stands out the most between all of these is Lace Me Up. It's very warm and cream toned compared to the others.

Radiant Cut vs. Matter of Fiction

Alright. These two looked really similar when I just swatched a single nail side by side, but I do think they produce different looking mani's overall. Here you can see Radiant Cut looks a bit softer and more toned down while Matter of Fiction is bright and more white/cool toned.

Left: Radiant CutRight: Matter of Fiction

Wearing Hue? vs. Lace Me Up vs. Fairy Tailor vs. Matter of Fiction

Fairy Tailor really stands out as different with it's more nude tones and crelly finish.

This was so fun for me to see all the slight differences between these polishes! I'm still obsessing over Matter of Fiction but am super loving my new Gala Bold purchases - both Wearing Hue and Inside Scoop. Back in December when I saw Radiant Cut was a brand new pale pink GC, I HAD to have it, but little did I know that Essie would be releasing Matter of Fiction in January. Now that I have MOF, I don't think I would go out of my way to order Radiant Cut from the U.S. (and pay extra for shipping and conversion) because they are pretty similar. Which one do you think your favourite is?

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comments:

I realllyyyyy loved Inside Scoop and Blush-worthy from last year, and I also loved Matter of Fiction this year. I did like Radiant Cut and I love that you were able to pick out the differences, but I was a tad underwhelmed by RC since I wore it after MoF. Still, both gorgeous!

I struggled with application of Lace Me Up (more my technique than the brush or the formula). I just bought Fairy Tailor after giving it a pass when it first came out, thanks to me overcoming my fear of sheers (haha, that rhymes!) thanks to Dress is More.